Claudio Marchisio wants to stay at Juventus

As somebody who is a frequenter of Claudio Marchisio’s handful of social media accounts, I can tell you that it looks from thousand of miles away that he’s having a wonderful summer. He’s been eating some really good looking food, spending time on some really nice beaches and basically living his best life for the last couple of weeks since there’s no need to worry about Italy playing at the World Cup.

But the overlying talking point hanging over Marchisio’s handful of summer destinations has been what his status at Juventus is completely up in the air or its just a matter of paper talk. (Because it’s not the first time the Italian press would stir something up just to stir something up.)

So, with all that being said, here’s what Marchisio had to say about his future in Turin playing for the club that he’s known for as long as he’s been playing this game:

“I want to play here and I want to stay at Juventus. There’s been no contact with other teams, nothing concrete. We haven’t talked to Juventus, we’ll do it in July after the holidays, but I’m optimistic.

“I hope to stay, we’ll see.”

(Source: Football Italia)

The “I hope to stay, we’ll see” part is far from convincing and we’d love for him to reassure all of us by saying he knows for sure that he’s staying put, but it’s not like Marchisio has been completely outspoken about the rumors surrounding his future the last couple of months. (Not like he’s one to really do that anyway.)

The thing that complicates everything is the situation we know that Marchisio was a part of last season. He wasn’t high up on the depth chart at all, appearing in only 15 league games and playing a grand total of 819 minutes. (Out of any Juventus outfield player, only Stefano Sturaro, Rodrigo Bentancur and Benedikt Howedes recorded fewer minutes in Serie A this season than Marchisio did.) Max Allegri preferred to run an out-of-form Sami Khedira out there more often than not instead of Marchisio.

So, if he were to leave and want to go abroad in search of more playing time as he gets closer and closer to his mid-30s, you would understand it while also being completely disappointed.

But, instead of report on report on report, we’ve now heard from Marchisio himself. He wants to stay at his boyhood club. And know that Juve have already said goodbye to a pair of leaders in Gigi Buffon and Stephan Lichtsteiner, keeping Marchisio around is a big victory to what has been a productive summer thus far.